Consciousness: how can I experience things that aren't 'real'?

Science has done a great job observing, dissecting and manipulating physical materials (matter) and seems to think the materialist method is the best way to go for the mysteries of the brain. It does not take a good view of the dualism theory, where the soul (residing in our brain) controls the body.

The problem is that by only studying the matter, science has always excluded and neglected consciousness.

... is beyond matter and beyond all scientific mathematics. The euphoria of love and many such wonderful feelings cannot be captured by the quantitative methods adopted by science.

The reality of consciousness is qualitative, and the materialist and dualist theories seem inadequate.

Idealism states that consciousness is all that exists in reality, and the physical world is nothing but an illusion, a construct generated from our own minds.

This is also discussed as The Simulation Theory, where the laws of physics and reality are nothing but rules in a simulation, like a computer game.

One of the approaches of idealists, called panpsychism, claims that both physical matter and consciousness are fundamental, and particles, energies and fields are simply forms of consciousness.

This approach tries to bridge the gaps left by dualism and materialism in our mind-boggling journey to understand consciousness and the universe.